Poll: Is 100 years of capitalism coming to an end?

First published on October 29, 2008. Not much has changed. --------------

Regardless of what others might say, there is no quick fix for the global economy.

To illustrate this point, a friend of mine recently sent me a chart which I would like to share with you. This charts shows that we may be going into a prolonged period of no growth in the overall stock market. The NASDAQ peaked at 5,132.52 on March 10th, 2000. The NASDAQ market is in many ways more important than the DOW, and should be considered more of a leading indicator. If that is truly the case, then we have been in a bear market for the last eight years.

Trading throughout the balance of this decade and into the early part of the next decade is going to be the key to survival and for recovering the profits in your portfolio. We strongly recommend that you approach these markets with some level of expertise and knowledge of technical trading.

The future is going to be the future and we need to take advantage of every moment and prepare ourselves to be the very best we can be in whatever business or endeavor we are pursuing.

Are you happy with what is going on in Washington D.C. and the economy?

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Every success in the future,

Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-creator, MarketClub

48 thoughts on “Poll: Is 100 years of capitalism coming to an end?

  1. Your garden variety Republicans and Democrats are two ends of the same worm. They are all beholden to the bankers and will continue us down the road to ruin. Only Ron Paul can make a difference. He will bring the troops back home to defend OUR borders. He will make it his business to cut the Federal government down to size. and balance the budget. His guidance will help reduce economic uncertainty and support the dollar, so that businesses can depend on a stable unit of account. Not to mention, he will bring back freedom and liberty to our Republic.

    1. hopefully his ideas and ideals will find a place in the platform of the parties, but don't count on it, too much to ask for until it is forced upon us, and by then, it may be too late. What about restoration of habeas corpus and absence of drones spying on American citizens for starters.

    2. Leonard, here is the reality facing the US today. Neither party can really save us from what the free market has in store for us for meddling with it. It is all going to work out but not without paying the piper. We the people have to feel the pain and learn from the mistakes of the past. There is no one politician or party that can help the economy unless they step aside and let capitalism and the free markets do it's own thing. This means repealing the regulations and the taxes that they oppressed business and individuals with and let everything work through on its own. Sad to say Ron Paul would be just one man and we need a lot more than just him. Unfortunately when the house of cards falls around the globe we well get one big correction of big government but not without the pain that will go with it. We live in interesting and very volatile times so enjoy the trading and have faith it will all work it's way out of this mess we are in. I am a American first, Coservative second and don't belong to any BS party that is of socialist ideology wanting a nanny state or a bunch of wimps and moderates that let the other party walk all over them. I have experienced that my own ideology gets in the way of my trading so I just follow the pivot points and block everything else out. Right now conservative people are bearish and liberals are bullish and the market is just eating them up. it's a loosing battle.

  2. When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

    I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. HEHE I love Thomas Jefferson quotes. They keep me fired up for one day when I may have to go to war against socialist and communist in our own country and lose everything I own fighting to restore freedom and liberty. GO Capitalism!!!

  3. The liberals have been systematically destroying the USA for the past three decades (and more recently with QE1, 2, 3?), and the republicans have only acted to somewhat slow it down. The American radical left will not be happy until they start Civil War 2.0, and they’re going to get their butts kicked again. Fascists and Socialists have no moral scruples and they must be defeated for this country to survive.

  4. "The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits" Thomas Jefferson.

    1. "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." Oscar Wilde

      1. "I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious". Thomas Jefferson

  5. There must be some wisdom within the comments submitted by those who care enough about our country and its economic system to have taken the time to write their thoughts on capitalism as it's practiced in the US. Kudos to all of you for being citizens and caring about the society at large. The problem is that much of what was submitted here is incomprehensible due to lack of economic literacy, blind devotion to party affiliation/ideology and just poor grammar and syntax. If only it were otherwise.

    1. Chalzer,
      No, Capitalism is not ending, not even close. We are just in a cycle where competing left and right politicians can't compromise. Obama is a temperary interjection just like J. Carter followed the Nixon -Ford period. Much of our disagreements arise from past actions. We had balanced budgets in the last Clinton years which were projected 'as far into the future as you could see'. Bush introduced a minor tax cut, followed after 9/11 by a larger tax cut. Since than we have not had a balanced budget. Now we need compromising politicians that can balance tax-income with expenditures that include entitlements. Our founding fathers reached compromises. Politicians advocating 'NO' are not in the American tradition.

      1. Stan,

        Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I didn't opine that capitalism was ending, rather, that much of what was submitted here was not very useful in terms of accurately defining the problem, as stated in my reasons for such. As to the 'Clinton surplus', the world economies enjoyed a little thing called the internet revolution, which redounded to financial markets and eventually the US Treasury. Clinton, Rubin and their acolytes had absolutely nothing to do with it, not even Al Gore, who 'invented the internet' (couldn't resist that, yet again).

        "Politicians advocating ‘NO’ are not in the American tradition." (Stan Harrison)

        George Will, in his arguing for conservatism and Hamiltonian political perspective (The Federalist papers 1787-88), points to present-day political gridlock as the natural outcome of clashing ideologies, the victor of which will be decided upon in November. About half the electorate will be animated and very disappointed, while the other half will likely quietly celebrate the final tally and then go about rebuilding the economy. Regrettably, this will take quite some time, given the misguided policies of late.

  6. People will fad-up through facing the black side of Capitalisum, and will be in search of any other alternative arrangement.Other point is also important that Capitalisum will be collepse by its own waight. after PIGS, there will be a turn of other countries, and no country will be or can be escape from that financial disasters.

    Rasesh Shukla - India

  7. That should be "200 years of Capitalism. " --- The Modern Period of history began after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Capitalism and Communism were the dominant socio-economic systems throughout that period.

    The Post-Modern period has not yet fully emerged, although, we are experiencing its birth pangs. Various parties intend that it will be a totalitarian theocracy divided into six or seven cultural regions, with a small population and a controlled economy.

  8. The accountability and failure associated with a free market provide for the re-distribution of capital and attitude. Trust busters McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft understood the importance of re-distribution by imposing market limitations on corporations whom escape competition. Today, these founding principles have been largely hijacked by the simplicity of greed, and the demography of security.

  9. I'm not moping around any more. I left the USA and moved to Thailand. I bought a house, and I will be able to afford to live in my home the rest of my life, even though I am retired. There is NO property tax EVER. If you want to send your brat to school, you pay the school directly. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, and the government sticks to national defense and infrastructure. The income tax is low. Small business thrives all over the country. No Social Security, no Medicare, no Medicaid. People come to Thailand from all over the world for medical care because it is excellent and inexpensive. No Big Brother with tentacles everywhere. Come here to see capitalism at work relatively unfettered.

  10. The GOP has been systematically destroying the USA for the past three decades, and the democrats have only acted to somewhat slow it down. The Amerikan radical right will not be happy until they start Civil War 2.0, and they're going to get their butts kicked again. Fascists have no moral scruples and they must be defeated for this country to survive.

  11. The politicians, banksters and special interest groups with their lobbyists constitute an oligarchy which is nothing more than Fascism, not the Nazi version, but Fascism nonetheless.

  12. We are not currently in anything remotely called Free Market capitalism. We are in an officially sanctioned rigged game, which favors large corporate interests. Perhaps if we were in a legitimate capitalist system. Then we could judge it.

  13. its time for direct participatory democracy. it used to be the best way to get rich, acquire assets/capital was to buy real estate, be born into it or steal it.

    in california the salaries of politicians have increased 4 fold with no sign whatsoever that conditions of the registered voter citizen/constituent has improved or can be expected to. let's make all registered voter citizens/ constituents subject to the same rigors of elective, appointive, political civil service servers.

    enough of the nietzsche/rand/keynesian theorists. its time to try what only a democratic peoples under the governance of a republican state can do. make everyone serve the democracy. require direct participatory input. randomly select all appointive, elective, political civil service positions to be filled by the registered voter citizen/constituent.

    to recognize us as equals we should be able to do as equals. politicians are claiming 12 years is not enough time to come up to speed to do an adequate job.
    its enough time to graduate from high school. if you don't pass the exit exam and complete your requirements, you likely will not graduate.

    the only equality we all share is as registered voter citizens/constituents. we should all be equal to bearing the burden of shaping and insuring the future of democracy. the only such democratic republic previously in existence was the pre Hitler Weimar Republic.

    we in this democracy are stated equals. let's act like it. everybody into the pool. everybody can help equally.

    give every registered voter citizen/constituent the opportunity to stab his neighbor in the back, develop the grand notion that will deliver humankind from tyranny. educate ourselves for the tasks at hand. make ourselves equal to saving ourselves or ...not.

    we have already tried what doesn't work. capitalism works for some of us; socialism works for some of us; communism works for some of us, theories work for some of us. but the democratic peoples title belongs to all of us. let's use that to progress ourselves. these are abstract thoughts, inanimate objects.

    let's make ourselves equal to the task of saving ourselves.

    with 2/3 of the registered voter citizen sayso, we can change any law in the us constitution. let's make ourselves equal to the job at hand. let's vote ourselves the power to progress democracy with all the m&e, accountability, fiduciary responsibilities we now demand of our current elective, appointive, political civil service servers on all levels of governance.

    let's do the work, get paid for it and stop the necessary tyranny of the state. it's what we, as a democratic peoples, can hold ourselves responsible for.

    thank you for the inspiration.

    1. matinah, democracy is a problem when the majority expect more than they are willing to work for.

    2. There's some good stuff in this post, thanks. Let's simply call now the new capitalism and make it better, with more benefits to society, than the old flavor. What's so regrettable about the death of the old capitalism? It didn't work very well. Let's move on.

  14. The politicians have no clues,the investors or the people with the money are on the driver seat.That storm will stop when they stop moving their assets around.

  15. Look up the definition of capitalism. Capitalism has existed for thousands of years. A farmer who owns his land, purchases seed, fertilizer, etc. He plows his land, plants the seed, reaps the harvest. He trades his excess for goods and services he cannot provide for himself. It had no name, because nothing else really existed. Only an advanced society, with academics who never had to work, could come up with a silly and foolish idea such as socialism, and its various manifestatations such as communism, marxism, leninism, fascism, etc. Either capital is in the hands of individuals(free market capitalism) or it's in the hands of the state and/or its chronies(chrony capitalsm, state capitalism). As Churchill said, "Capitalism ensures the unequal sharing of wealth, socialism ensures the equal sharing of poverty". I do believe Karl Marx invented the work "capitalism".

    1. Money is either in the hands on the individual or state -- that's a false dichotomy.

      The problem is a debt-backed monetary system.

  16. I have a problem with the way Obama talks about "Creating Jobs" as is if it is a ocult secret he is bessed with. The only way the govenment can create jobs is to pay people to do things that no one would pay them to do, its usually called" standing around" and have us, the taxpayers pay for it. This is not dynamic not is it free. Since all these things increase the deficit, our children will have to pay. The only way for the federal goverment to have any postive impact on jobs is to get the H... out of the way so that the private sector can offer goods and services to people who want to pay for them.
    Now his 400 billion jobs bill that he recently passed. 300 billion was to pay people to stand around. I was for the 100 billion part to improve infrastructure until I learned that most of the contracts went to chinese firms.

  17. The system we have for selecting representatives is broken. 95% of incumbents get re-elected, even though public approval of Congress is somewhere south of 20%. As special interests, party machines, and "focus groups" are used to skew the composition of the Congress and the votes that they take, is it any wonder that they are about essentially voting to 1. re-arrange the deck of the Titanic, and 2. spend more of the taxpayers money and when that is done, to borrow to the hilt. Capitalism would do well if left fairly much alone. However, it is being distorted beyond recognition by the forces mentioned above. If capitalism is dead (and, but capitalism, I mean free markets), just what will replace it?

  18. Gold and silver money is capitalism....Therefore we haven`t had capitalism in a 100 years...It`s about time for some FREE market capitalism...There is NO free market with fiat money...

    1. If I owned all the gold and silver in the world, how would you like capitalism then? A free market is always limited by geography and possession. The Tally Stick promoted liberty more than gold.

  19. The US Capitalist System of limited government with freedom and liberty is the most sucessful government every created from the beginning (Thanksgiving) to today. There is no other government in the history of the world that can compete with it. The Democrat party has been taken over by the socialist and communist and that is the down fall of the Capitalist Government. At least until people realize once again that socialism and communism is a failure. This will happen and we have to hit rock bottom before everyone wakes up and realizes that it is Freedom and Liberty that is the solution to the human condition. So far I think we get another Depression like we had in the 1930's unless something changes in November. I am not 100% on the Republican side, believe me, but they are at least 50% freedom and liberty. The Democrat party is not the party it use to be and they are about 10% freedom & liberty. All I am saying is one party is the lessor of two evil. Here is why I don't think there is a quick fix. The Democrats in Washington DC don't have a clue because the quick fix is to just let the free market go and that is something they would never ever in a million years consider. The Republicans are extremely weak but not hopeless like the Democrats and therefore not much better. I think either party does not have the strength to just let the free market do it's thing and let the weak be washed out and the strong survive. If this were to happen, and I don't see it happing, within one year everything would come back. This is why I think it is hopeless because I don't think either side can just 100% step aside and get out of the free markets way. It is hopeless so hang onto your shorts it's going to be a volitile ride.

    1. I have a difficult time lending credence to anything written by someone who equates the "the beginning" with Thanksgiving. Very entertaining though!

      1. Stephen, read the actual written events of history and you will see that when the pilgrim' settled in America that Bradford tried the socialist ideology and half of them died the first winter because of low rationings (on 20% of them produced and the general store went dry in the middle of a very bad winter)and then he tried the freedom and liberty way and said everyone is responsible for themselves and here is your plot of land to work. The following winter there was a abundance of rations and so much so they could trade with the indians (which is the part that you have probably learned from your socialist teachers in school). Thus, Capitalism was born! I find it very intertaining that you probably benefit from freedom and liberty and have done well and provided well for youself and family in this Capitalist America and you don't even know when and how Capitalism started. I find that very entertaining and would have a hard time lending credence to any comment written by someone who doesn't even know or realize how they are blessed. Don't worry Stephen, about 70% of the US population does not know this history, mainly because they have not been taught. But hey, you don't have to lend credence to what I have written just go look it up. WTH I am not your history teacher.

        1. Actually I am a historian. Sorry, half of the first settlers did not die of socialism. Being ill equipped, ill informed, thinking they could grow crops here that performed well in Europe - there are many reasons they died but socialism was not one of them. The main reason they made it through subsequent winters was because natives helped them hone the survival skills that would be necessary in this new world. Now please go and do some reading from credible sources.

          1. That is your opinion but it is not fact. Read the actual accounts of history. Tell me, what vs. in Genesis did the Pilgrims follow that caused them to give thanks to God? Thus later creating the Holiday Thanksgiving.

  20. Crony Capitalism is the problem. The only way to fix it is to have government funded elections. If you don't take the money out of politics, nothing will ever change, in fact, it is only getting worse.

  21. Back in the 1890's the problem was monopolies, like standard oil and others that got too powerful and attempted to rig the game by getting rid of the competition. Then along came a crazy fool rough rider president, Teddy Rosevelt, who happened to be smart as well and he took on big oil, the railroads and other corporate empires. The rest was history. We need a president who is not afraid of anyone.
    Don't tell anybody but Obama is owned by George Soros and other bankers.
    Today it is the bankers who have a stranglehold on America and it will be a tough fight. The aveage voter can't begin to understand the complexity of this problem. Capitalism works best with competition and some degree of regulation. Right now we have the bankers who have pulled the teeth out of the SEC so they can wheel, deal and have us bail them out when they mess up. This is not capitalism but gangsterism of big money who own the media.

  22. The Republicans are deliberately stalling the economy so they can claim that Obama is useless -

    one the question of capitalism - I believe that among other things there was been a disaster of huge proportions because there has been a relience computer based answers for the eonomcy
    and computer based gambling in house hold debt - that JP Morgan can not figure out what went wrong something is seriously wrong with the used of the computer -
    Perhaps this is where federal legislation should be directed- - it has gone over board now - but the problem began in the 80's

  23. I agree with Steven. It's a new world boys and girls, and sitting back moping about Washington is not going to cut it. We should all know by now that computers have had more impact on the Market than Washington ever could.

    The other thing we know is that Capitalism is a cyclical economic model. What goes up inevitably comes down and so on. According to Adam's charts, it could be several more years until happy days are here again.

  24. There is no single system that works well. The US capitalist system worked fine for 60 years - taking advantage of a world that was destroyed in two major armed conflicts. The economies of today do not reach steady state - i.e., there is no more time to reach balance between demand and supply (which is the basis of capitalism).

    1. You almost have it. It is supply and demand. However it is the supply and demand of the money supply. the private owned central banks manipulate the money supply to turn on and off the economy .
      Look up John Adams qoutes on why the central banks need to stay nationalized. We the people create wealth through our trades our skills sets. We control of our money supply, we create just enough money supple to conduct trade and commerce and then eliminate the interest charge.

      The current system is a round around and steals the wealth created by the labor of the indivual.

  25. Of course they are in it to benefit themselves and their buddies (read banks).

    Otherwise free market forces would be allowed to to take care of things the right way.

    Everything has gotten to a point where it is too big to fail, and for what?

    Profit!!!

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